Critical Reflection Prompt 1: Getting a Grip

“ It’s pretty easy to see how our mental concepts — ideas about reality — disempower others. . . It’s much harder to see perceive the mental straightjackets we ourselves don every day” (Lappe, 5).

What is Lappé’s point in Chapter 1 about why and how our ideas or “mental frames” are so crucial to culture, society, our shared humanity? (Use quotes from the text to support and deepen your interpretation).

So What? Following from the point above, Lappé writes that “we humans now suffer from . . . the lack of a critical concept we need to thrive” (5). She proposes that we have been operating under a “thin” concept of democracy. What are some of the dangers of Thin Democracy that she describes? (Use quotes from the text to support and deepen your interpretation).

Now What? In Chapter 2, Lappé describes a profound new way of seeing the world, a new “mental map” she calls a Living Democracy. She introduces the five qualities of a Living Democracy that feed our human desire for meaning. Pick one of the qualities and discuss what this means to you and your own quest for meaning and how your education helps build your capacity to participate in a Living Democracy. (Use quotes from the text to support and deepen your interpretation).